Posts Tagged Law

Judge Mary Jacobson of the Mercer County Superior Court ruled Friday that gay couples can marry in the Garden State starting October 21.

“This unequal treatment requires that New Jersey extend civil marriage to same-sex couples to satisfy equal protection guarantees of the New Jersy Constitution as interpreted by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Lewis,” wrote the judge. “Same-sex couples must be allowed to marry in order to obtain equal protection of the law under the New Jersey Constitution.”

Jacobson said she made her decision in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on United States v. Windsor, but the ruling is likely to be appealed.

When I saw the following headline, I thought I had accidentally stumbled onto The Onion website:

Formal complaints over sexism should be last resort for women: The negative impact of formal reporting outweighs any benefits, writes a lawyer. Instead, define your boundaries early on.

But no, I was on The Guardian’s website, in a section called “Women in Leadership,” no less. Since Women in Leadership defines itself as a “community” which “discuss[es] the lack of women at the top and what we can do to change this,” I was sure that the op-ed they posted on Tuesday wasn’t as sexist and ridiculous as it seemed. So, I read the whole thing, waiting for the moment when the author would ...

When I saw the following headline, I thought I had accidentally stumbled onto The Onion website:

Formal complaints over sexism should be last resort for women: The negative impact of formal reporting outweighs any benefits, writes a ...

California has already been proactive in fighting discrimination against trans folks – you may remember us talking about their ban on trans discrimination in healthcare. They also banned gender discrimination in schools.

Lawmakers in the state have now taken steps to make sure that trans folks are not only safe from discrimination but given the opportunity to participate and flourish in school. Governor Jerry Brown has signed the School Success and Opportunity Act into law.

“The law, which goes into effect on January 1, 2014, is the first of its kind in the country, and requires that California public schools respect students’ gender identity and makes sure that students can fully participate in all school activities,sports teams, programs, and ...

California has already been proactive in fighting discrimination against trans folks – you may remember us talking about their ban on trans discrimination in healthcare. They also banned gender discrimination in schools.

Yesterday we included a link in our Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet about a Tennessee judge who imposed her own religious views and changed the name of a baby against his parents’ wishes. But as rapper Meek Millz said, “it’s levels to this shit” and this is more than an issue of violating the separation between church and state. The racial and family dynamics in this story are important and deserve some unpacking.

Jaleesa Martin and the father of her son, of New Port Tennessee, could not agree on their baby’s last name and were going to child support court to resolve the issue. They did, however, agree on the first name, which was Messiah. Judge Lu Ann Ballew came ...

Yesterday we included a link in our Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet about a Tennessee judge who imposed her own religious views and changed the name of a baby against his parents’ wishes. But as rapper ...

Talk about baby steps (no pun intended). Not even a year ago, Savita Halappanavar died after being refused a life-saving abortion in Ireland. Her story brought international attention to exactly how strict the staunchly Catholic nation’s abortion ban was.

“The law permits abortions to alleviate life-threatening conditions, including a woman’s own threat to commit ...

Talk about baby steps (no pun intended). Not even a year ago, Savita Halappanavar died after being refused a life-saving abortion in Ireland. Her story brought international attention to exactly how strict the staunchly Catholic nation’s ...

Ed note: This is a guest post by Jessica Luther. Jessica Luther is a freelance writer, reproductive justice activist, historian, and proud Texan. She is on Twitter at @scATX and her main site is jessicawluther.com.
To my fellow Texans:
Living as a progressive in Texas can be hard. Often you feel outnumbered, silenced, and underrepresented.
I have believed for a long time that Texas has the potential to change its political makeup, that all we needed was some kind of spark to light the fire of change.
What happened over the last week, as hundreds and then thousands of Texans showed up in person to protest incredibly restrictive anti-choice and anti-access abortion bills, that was the most beautiful spark I’ve ever seen.
By ...

Ed note: This is a guest post by Jessica Luther. Jessica Luther is a freelance writer, reproductive justice activist, historian, and proud Texan. She is on Twitter at @scATX and her main site is jessicawluther.com.
To ...

For years, the United States has endorsed an explicitly discriminatory policy against sex workers. PEPFAR, our international HIV/AIDS aid policy, contains an anti-prostitution pledge requirement stating that no funds “may be used to provide assistance to any group or organization that does not have a policy explicitly opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.” In practice, this means that life-saving materials like condoms, contraceptives, and even information about sex and sexuality can’t legally be distributed to sex workers by any international agencies that accept US funding. Domestic agencies have to make no such pledge, although prostitution is obviously not legal in most of the US.

This, despite the fact that female sex workers are the ones who could most benefit from ...

For years, the United States has endorsed an explicitly discriminatory policy against sex workers. PEPFAR, our international HIV/AIDS aid policy, contains an anti-prostitution pledge requirement stating that no funds “may be used to provide assistance ...

There’s not much to say about the sequester that hasn’t already been said (except, maybe, “Don’t ask me, I’m no sequexpert.” Ok, now that’s taken care of.) But hey, I’m just a blogger on a Friday afternoon trying to meet you where you’re at. And where you’re at is in sequester hell, whether you know it or not, if lots of Washington Post and Politico bloggers are to be believed. If you’re wondering what, exactly, I’m referring to when I talk about the sequester, well then we’ve come to the part of the post where you pick your sequester breakdown: